Ineos is planning a significant shift upmarket, with a focus on boutique off-roaders to rival the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, instead of trying to grow both its line-up and sales.
By pivoting to focus on its new Arcane Works programme – Ineos’s take on Land Rover SV and Bentley Mulliner – the brand will be able to target similar margins while making fewer vehicles as it looks to battle against increasingly stringent emissions regulations in the UK and across Europe.
“The main feedback from dealers is that the Grenadier is too cheap – it needs to be more expensive for the amount of car you get,” George Ratcliffe, commercial director of Ineos, told Autocar. “They want to sell it for more.”
This pivot is a far cry from the brand’s initial plan, which, along with the Grenadier and its Arcane Works siblings, originally included a Jeep Avenger-sized small urban model and the electric Fusilier, revealed earlier this year but now indefinitely postponed.
“What we wanted to achieve is no longer possible,” said Ratcliffe. “When the Grenadier project started, what we said was: ‘We’re going to build a really affordable, easy-to-fix utilitarian vehicle that will be good for farmers.’ It’s a gap in the market. But with the modern world and what you need – engines, pedestrian protection rules, CO2 emissions, regulation on vehicles – you cannot do that any more.”
Ratcliffe also warned that limiting sales in certain markets, such as the UK, with its strict ZEV mandate, has not been ruled out. That mandate forces car makers to sell an increasing ratio of electric cars each year from 2024 onwards, but it exempts those that sell fewer than 2500 cars annually. Ineos delivered 146 cars and 178 commercial vehicles in the UK in the first half of this year.
Fleet CO2 targets were another reason cited for the Fusilier’s postponement. Ratcliffe said projected sales would have taken the firm over the threshold of being a ‘small’ manufacturer – fewer than 10,000 cars or 22,000 vans sold annually – with the dispensation to propose its own emissions targets.
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So easy to be an armchair critic but, how many of you have founded a new car company and, brought a new car to market, that complies with all the onerous regulations a new car from a small manufacturer, needs to comply with?
Would is surprise you if I said nobody here did??? :-)
But seriously, the off roaders put a lot of expectation onto this car. Far more than it deserved. A modern take on the Defender, and they expected it for £30k. One which was ready to go everywhere in the world, yet they could modify so it could go everywhere in the world. One that was modern and met all the regulations, yet could still be repaird with a bit of mud and a stick.
What was delivered was too expensive for the off roaders, because they were buying used Defenders. Too heavy because they used a military contractor to design the 4x4 system. Not capable enough, becuase they ignored what Land Rover had learned over their history. And even in other regions where they add a camper to the rear, unable to take the extra weight of that within their allowed GVM (maxium weight the car can be).
Reports also say it's thirsty. Yes, it's a great BMW engine, but it has to work in the Grenadier. Even the way it was packaged inside the RHD cars intruded upon the driving position, meaning your left leg has to sit up rather than relax. Some people (short!) are ok with it, others it's a big problem. Even the wipers can't clean the screen suffiently! Probably needed a three wiper system, but tried to cut costs with only two - and it's the flaw with LHD as well by the looks of it.
Added to that it isn't a "car" but a commercial vehicle needing a different class of insurance.
It just seemed to miss everything that people were looking to get out of the Grenadier to the point where the New Defender looks so much better by comparison. But for the target market the Grenadier claimed to be aiming for, farmers and the such like, this won't get them out of their 4x4 pickups. They can buy two of those pickups for one Grenadier. Yes, there might be times where the Grenadier will out perform those pickups, but the farmers would have already switched to their tractors.
Great write up - agree with everything, especially the first two paragraphs. I so wanted it to be a Defender 2.0. But I found the whole thing was a let-down. Even the 'competition' to name the Grenadier was just a marketing trick (they had already decided to call it the Grenadier). Cynical. Then the decision to build it abroad, make it 4 door, and go upmarket! I was so disappointed that I have taken every opportunity to criticise Mr Ratcliffe and the Grenadier. I don't think the demise is too far off.
Bob, I think it's fair to say that I wouldn't have a clue - but then, Mr Ratcliffe doesn't seem to have, either. Be honest, did Ineos get anything right about it? The sales appears to show it didn't. It's a shock that they have lasted this long, but as they needed to sell a minimum of 30,000 units a year (according to Mr Ratcliffe back in 2017) just to break even, then I'm going to guess that this has become a vanity project. Remember, James Dyson pulled out when he saw the real figures, as did even Sony! Mr Ratcliffe will surely see sense at some point - that this is not even a break-even venture, but a loss, and a big one. I suspect he is very much hurting at the moment, as it is an ego-bash to see a project you love fail to take off. I have started three businesses which didn't fly. The sales didn't match the dream.
The first Nail in the Coffin was it looked like a Defender, if I was wanting to design a competitor to not just Land Rover, I'd have made damn sure it looked like no other,Ineos might survive as a small niche high end 4x4 but the stigma of looking almost like the top product of the off road Vehicles and not being that better at anything else kind of makes me think there needs to be a mk2 , a Facelift,an update , just do something different.
Admittedly, I did say that they would sell 100 cars a year in the UK, so 700 is much better! But, of course, it's pathetic. They got everything wrong - design (too much like the Defender which was designed in 1981), wrong engines, not built in the UK, not 'hose-out' (and therefore too expensive), and style by a boat designer (that front!). Again, I was wrong, as I said they would last just a year. Mr Ratcliffe is still pouring money in like the way I fill my pool.
As a manufacturer, you can go a number of ways. But what so baffled me is why he simply didn't just purchase Ibex and expand on it. What he wanted was right there already! The portal axle Grenadier looks great, but I can only imagine the price, so they would sell what, three a year? The Grenadier could already look like this with re-arranged suspension. As I predicted, Ineos Motors will collapse (I was just out on timing).